Anachroma by vandriver

[raw]
made by vandriver for LD27 (COMPO)
I was busy on saturday, so I couldn't polish much. Sadly that includes in-game instructions and tutorials, so here they are:

This is a game of survival. Ten seconds per boss. But it's also about time management: you can be invincible almost as much as you need, but it adds time to the counter.

Three color-coded bosses.
Red slashes and leaves a pit of acid on death.
Blue makes ice blocks and leaves a spinning deathray.
Yellow uses an explosive teleport and leaves a thunderstorm.

You curse each one in turn to die in 10 seconds.

Hold X to channel the curse for faster kills (doubles curse speed)
Hold C to phase and become invincible and speedy (quadruples curse speed in the opposite direction!)

While phased, you add time on your curses and if you add up past 20, you die.

When each boss dies, he leaves a remaining corpse ability and confers all his abilities to the survivors, including their death trigger, so the order you choose to kill them in is important.

Ice blocks won't kill you, but prevent movement unless phased.

Hit escape to return from battle to the boss order screen.

I'm not sure exactly which order is easiest or hardest, but I know killing red first is easier and killing red last is much harder. Even the easiest is probably too hard since I've had no playtesting/balance time. Be warned!

EDIT:
So after playtesting it a bit this evening after the dare, my suggestion for the first run-through is red, blue, yellow. I reckon it's the easiest. I think the opposite lineup is the hardest.

As the bosses die, you'll want to channel less so you don't have to phase as much. Especially if you're doing blue first, you'll have to phase a lot just to get through the beams already. If you are just walking around doing nothing, they all still die on their own!

Ratings

Coolness 41% 1377
Overall 3.25 365
Audio 2.50 579
Fun 3.36 225
Graphics 2.64 705
Humor 1.89 773
Innovation 3.50 207
Mood 2.67 602
Theme 3.58 193

Feedback

joyman
26. Aug 2013 · 11:39 UTC
Haha nice, but i know better to vandriver
Anoarith
26. Aug 2013 · 20:26 UTC
Wow this was very very original and cool *o*
SusanTheCat
26. Aug 2013 · 22:31 UTC
Cool Idea! I think it would have helped me to have a couple of easy tutorial levels.
Entity2D
26. Aug 2013 · 22:37 UTC
Wow, very original and addictive game!
noom
26. Aug 2013 · 22:41 UTC
Tough little game but I love the concept. Well done, I'd love to see this idea expanded on.
oajfh
26. Aug 2013 · 22:52 UTC
Wow, very cool. Great fun, but very very hard. Nice grahics and sounds. A little easier, and with some cool music and this would have been amazing. I'll definitely be playing that one again.
Feysoura
26. Aug 2013 · 22:55 UTC
Loved it.
Reyn
28. Aug 2013 · 13:12 UTC
I constantly felt trapped and in fear for my life, well done :) I played this a lot longer than any other game thus far. I like the idea that you can indirectly set difficulty and trying to figure out what order is a game on its own. Thanks
caranha
28. Aug 2013 · 13:31 UTC
Hey Vandriver, this is a very fun game. Nintendo-hard, maybe, but I like having my ass kicked like that.

The two commands affecting the death timer in different ways is a cool idea.

I think this game deserves a lot of love in the shape of nicer graphics, and maybe some backstory, but as it is I liked playing it a lot!

Here is a video review for you: http://youtu.be/Ev3zV4j8TC4
Thanks for the game!
🎤 vandriver
28. Aug 2013 · 15:57 UTC
Haha, caranha thanks! Its so valuable to see reactions like that. It becomes more aapparent how poorly I explained the core game! The phase ability needs to be held down to fully dodge - you can be invincible as long as you hold it. Sorry About the frustrating play through, man and thanks again for the videa reviews - you're a true champion of ludum dare!
lopiky1
29. Aug 2013 · 11:52 UTC
sweet :D
doonay21
30. Aug 2013 · 19:54 UTC
Original entry. With fine audio it was nice experience. Good job!
Jedi
01. Sep 2013 · 19:14 UTC
Now that I've beaten it (after about an hour) I can safely say: it's too damn hard! :P
Good job!
GaTechGrad
04. Sep 2013 · 03:53 UTC
Tough game. I like all the different boss abilities. I was able to take two of them down. (Web and Warpmaim). The boss turning into a huge laser after being defeated seemed a little unfair.
DreamTeam
13. Sep 2013 · 02:04 UTC
SO AWESOME! This is easily the most innovative take on the theme thus far. Huge challenge and a really unique boss mechanic. Vandriver delivers yet again!